


What Ties Us Together

by BrokenPi



Category: Haikyuu!!, ハイパープロジェクション演劇「ハイキュー!!」| Hyper Projection Play "Haikyuu!!" RPF
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Apocalypse, Badass girls, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Bokuto is strong af, Character Deaths, Explicit Language, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Major Character Injury, Memory Loss, Mild Gore, Minor Character Death, Miya Twins, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Temporary Amnesia, Violence, also sometimes badass Kenma, everyone's age are not canon, fast pace i guess, getting angry, kind and soft kenma, many of the characters are not written in the tags but they might appear in the story, pissed Bokuto, ruined Japan, sakusa is not so much of a germaphobe here cuz its gon be hard if he is, serious Oikawa, sometimes it might go slow, surprise surprise im actually not sleep deprived, tsundere Tsukihima
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:13:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29451360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrokenPi/pseuds/BrokenPi
Summary: The universe wants them together so they got together. But when fate said no, they didn't listen and kept looking for each other.Just as they say, opposite attracts. And they will be together even if it means death.*please read tags bcs I won't be putting trigger warnings at the beginning of each chapters. You came for apocalypse AU so be prepared for what's about to come.*
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Shimizu Kiyoko/Tanaka Ryuunosuke
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	1. Forever Searching

**Author's Note:**

> I'm reuploading this bcs I think 9000~ words per chaper and some doesn't have much dialogues might be too much and boring. Bcs reading blocks of words are not very pleasant. I changed some words and fixed some things just to make things straight. I was deciding on the way the story might go and the other reason I'm posting shorter chapters is so that if i were to change something, it would be easier and wouldn't take a huge toll on the story. if that makes any sense.
> 
> oh and as usual, the ships that are actually romantically couples will be KuroKen, BokuAka, IwaOi, and TanaKiyo. Though the TanaKiyo and IwaOi will be backgrounds but still there.
> 
> And this note underneath. It's like a free page of preview. That page might will be in the future chapters soooo maybe you should wait for it. and it's actually one page in my word document. lmao

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Preview:
> 
> Kenma's gaze was far across the horizon, watching as the breeze swipes his dark long hair and caressing his skin, neither feeling cold nor hot. His back was slouched in a way he always does. His golden cat eyes, half closed and his hands fiddling with his own unkempt nails. His lips were pressed to a thin smile barely visible, but it was there if one were to look closely. 
> 
> His expression was same as always but the longer he looks, the more it seems that there was something hiding behind him. His half closed eyes was as though it was tired of waiting, the fiddling hands showed that he was anxious, and his thin smile never lifted more than that. But at least he looked comfortable and not on edge.
> 
> “Kenma,” the words slipped from his mouth, calling to him. 
> 
> The person being called turned his head to him, tilting it slightly. “Hmm?” 
> 
> Kuroo's fingers brushed with Kenma's that sent tingles down his spine. “You’re not going anywhere right?” Kenma blinked before looking down to their hands beside each other. He had the bravery and placed his smaller hand atop Kuroo’s. His hand was rough, decorated with callouses, tiny cuts and, scuffs. 
> 
> Kuroo looked down to their entwined hands then back to Kenma. “I’m always here. I never left and probably never will, because I’m waiting for you.” One of his brows lifted, confused at the words. 
> 
> “Am I going somewhere?” He asked. 
> 
> Kenma raised both of his shoulders. “You’re always somewhere.”
> 
> “Am I far?” he asked again.
> 
> This time Kenma nodded his head, the smile on his face falling deeper. Kuroo didn’t like that. “You’re far, so far.”
> 
> “But I’m beside you right now.” Kuroo tightened his grasp on Kenma’s tiny hand. 
> 
> “Are you?” Kenma tilted his head. But Kuroo didn’t answer immediately. The answer was obvious, of course, of course he’s there beside him. He could even feel his warmth radiating from his skin, he could see the details of his skin and face from this close. He’s right there. But he couldn’t say ‘yes'. Because he may be physically beside him right now, his true self was never there to begin with. He was still lost somewhere, searching for a way back.
> 
> “I’m sorry,” he said, looking down. Kenma's other free hand lifted his face and faced him, shaking his head. “Don’t apologize,” Kuroo could feel Kenma's breath from this close. “Take your time. Like I said, I’m not going anywhere, I’m always here,” 
> 
> “But aren’t you lonely?” 
> 
> “What about you?” Kenma asked back. Kuroo froze, what does he meant by that? 
> 
> “You’re still lost there, are you not lonely? I’m not lost, and I’m waiting, so I won’t get lonely because I know you’ll be here sooner or later. But until then, I’ll be right here.” He points down to where he’s sitting.

Kenma zipped his lips together as he sees an infected walked past him without a single care in the world. After a good number of years running around here and there, away from the infected, Kenma was a professional at moving without a sound at all and his light body adds it as a plus.

The only thing between him and the Infected was the counter in the worn down store. Kenma stood still as if he was one of the faceless mannequins there, breathing slowly. The creature dragged its feet around the store like heavy sacks beside it. Kenma glanced down to the counter and beside his feet was a crushed empty canned drink with a bold _‘Cola’_ written in white. Like anyone would do, he slowly lowered himself down to grab the can before tossing it to the other side of the store where it’s the furthest from the entrance door.

As soon as the metal can made contact with the floor, it made a loud _clang_ and the infected whipped its head to where the sound was coming from before dragging its greyed legs there. When the infected turned around the corner and out of sight, Kenma grabbed the little supplies he had gathered and made his way out of the store without a problem.

A sigh of relieve escaped Kenma’s lips as the harsh wind brushed against his skin. Ever since the world turned chaotic, the weather had turned unpredictably very bold. When it rains during winter, it rains like it hasn’t for years and when it’s sunny during summer, the sun beamed as if the earth doesn’t have any atmosphere. Rainy days and thunderstorms might make it a pain in the ass to travel but it would be the best to because the infected wouldn’t be able to hear well when all it could hear was be the sound of rain.

From what Kenma gathered, the infected couldn’t see with their eyes. Perhaps because the human eyes are exposed, they rot very quickly and losses its purpose. Since eyes don’t work on them, they started to depend on their sharp pair of ears. The smallest grunt from a person and they’d know where their prey lies. Not to forget about their insanely strong jaws that could bite off a chunk of human flesh like it was a piece of fruit.

After years living among the infected, Kenma knew how they behaved, how long they would last without eating, how do they reproduce, how little of a sound can they hear, and several more. The infected doesn’t really have many weaknesses except for their somewhat stupid behavior when met with food. Once they point where food is, any type of idea about keeping it quiet from other infected left their small rotten brains.

Living in this wrecked world alone was obviously difficult at first. Kenma was small, he wasn’t very strong when it comes to muscles and strength, and instead, his advantage was at his brain. His mind was as if it was water in a container, easily taking in the space around him and finding every small detail to his advantage. This meant traps and plenty of strategies up above his head. Making a simple plan was like blinking for Kenma.

Though plenty of his plans would have worked if he has the man strength, which he doesn’t have. He and his team used to be the best team Kenma could ever think of, consisting of himself with the main role as the brain, and then Kuroo as the leader, Bokuto and Hinata was also a part of them with their insanely high energy bar that doesn’t seem to decrease along with Lev and several others.

The only thing Kenma knew for sure was that Hinata, Lev, and several others were somewhere safe with a group in Miyagi. Bokuto and Tsukishima were captured by a hostile party in Tokyo. And as for Kuroo, his body was left under the ruins of Washijou’s base during their big rescue raid several years ago. All night Kenma could only sit and wonder what he ever did to the world that they had to take Kuroo away from his side. And as for now, the composed small man could only be patient with the world and himself.

Glancing around at the empty road, Kenma found no signs of living people. An empty plastic bag flew by amongst the worn down cars as Kenma silently made his way through the city. Kenma had no ride while he was still in Tokyo; he figured that since Tokyo is big, riding a car would most likely bring trouble to him.

While Kenma walked among the dead cars in the street, he heard from the distance, a car machine slowly going louder, informing that it’s coming closer. Kenma glanced to the empty buildings surrounding him and quickly hid in one. Kenma had entered a four stories building and hid in the second floor. The building wasn’t too big that an infected could hide and suddenly jump at him. Though he would have gone to the top floor and examine the approaching car if there wasn’t any infected in the stairs leading to the upper floors, the furthest he could go to was until the second floor. He hid in the corner of the room and peered down from the window as a big black car slowly drove past, bumping the other cars in the way.

It wasn’t a car like the others in the street; this one was big and bulky with metal plates covering the sides. It practically was like one of the military police cars that are used to carry dangerous prisoners around. The top of the car was open and a man was sticking out from it with a rifle. From the sides, Kenma could also see metal bars that are wide enough for a gun barrel to get through. Just seeing the car, Kenma could already figure out who those people are. Washijou’s underlings, the ones who took Bokuto and Tsukishima.

Kenma cringed as the car bumped into the other cars and making loud noises. Surely they knew what they’d be attracting with the loud sounds that they’re making. And true, in no time, a good number of infected began pouring out of the surrounding buildings. The ones in the building Kenma was in were banging and screeching on the door leading to the stairs pleading to open it. Kenma debated whether or not to open the door since as long as he’s quiet then those people would do the dirty work for him. But if things go south then he’d most likely be food and the next infected.

After a minute of debating, Kenma decided to not open the door and not risk it. Besides, if those people decided to not kill all of them then the trouble would be turned towards him who still had to go through Tokyo on foot. Not very pleasant.

A small peek from Kenma and he saw probably around fifteen infected making its way to the armored car only to be shot down by the shooters. He can hear the man that was sticking out from the top whining about them, having to do the dirty work. Though Kenma must admit, he was a very skilled shooter. He wasted no bullets on each infected and his shots were quite accurate. Kenma wouldn’t want to mess with them.

Sliding down the wall, Kenma sat on the floor and waited for the group of strangers to drive away while also subjugating the infected around the place at the same time, should be a win-win situation for Kenma as long as he stayed hidden. Checking the time from the solar powered wristwatch Kenma has on his wrist, he confirmed that the sun would be down in an hour and a half, two hours most, before night falls.

The banging from the door to the stairways had stopped and turned to loud teeth grinding, groans, and dragging sounds. Kenma was tired, and if he wanted to sleep, he needs to make sure that his surrounding areas are safe for him to be careless enough to lock himself in a room and sleep, that’s the disadvantage of traveling alone in an apocalypse when your enemy pin points you from the noise you make.

He checked the stuffs inside his bag and found not much things that would be useful for this situation but he did found a device deep in his messy bag that he and his group's former engineer had developed when supplies were easier to come by. It produces a very high pitched sound that only infected, some animals, and certain aged children could hear. The pitch is so high that infected would be deaf for a short while it gives opportunities for people to attack them.

With the device and after predicting the amount of infected are in the building, Kenma might can kill them all and clear the place in a short amount of time, hopefully before the sun sets. But the only thing that’s stopping Kenma from proceeding with his plan is the lack of batteries to power the device. Three double A batteries should be enough to last for several months of use, but Kenma had no batteries with him.

Fortunately, the building Kenma had entered had a toy store on the second floor. People often underestimate toy stores. Since it sells toys and would be useless during an apocalypse, but most toys would need batteries to work and while some toy factories are nice enough to provide batteries with their product, toy stores should be the other place to go to when trying to find batteries.

Kenma stood up from his place and began venturing around the small toy store he was in. The racks had plenty of toys but most of them were non-battery-powered toys like plushies and figurines. Thankfully, Kenma had found a toy that used double A batteries as power but it only comes with two while Kenma needed three for the device to work.

He searched in the racks for another similar toy but found none, ' _it must have been the last stock',_ Kenma thought. ' _Maybe there’s some in the storage?'_ He added. But where is the storage? The first floor building was a boutique, the third was a hair salon, and the fourth floor was a clothes shop. They must have kept the extra stocks in the same floor, so Kenma began searching underneath the racks. He crouched down to the floor while examining the whole floors to find none of the toy that he’s searching. Glancing back to his wristwatch then to the window outside, Kenma cursed silently, it’s getting darker already. He’d end up finishing everything when it’s already pitch black outside if this keeps up.

With a sigh, Kenma looked up to the tall rows of racks and sighs, the last place he needs to check is the top of the racks which he couldn’t reach. ' _If only Kuroo's here, he’d look up there for me',_ at the memory of Kuroo's tall figure, Kenma huffed. ' _Finish this now so I can sleep soon'._ Not knowing when _soon_ is, Kenma looked around to find something he can climb on top of. Instead of using a stool and check one by one, Kenma made his way towards the counter and carefully hopped on top of it before going on his tippy toes and lifting his head high to see the top of the racks.

After squinting his eyes and searching the whole racks, Kenma found the light blue cardboard box he was looking for. It was on the shelf in the corner. He carefully jumped from the counter and made his way to the corner of the room before climbing the rack that was pinned to the wall, things in Japan are often screwed to the wall since Japan often have earthquakes. With his lightweight body, Kenma reached the toy easily. He began pulling out the batteries from the toy he found and plugged them into the device.

As soon as the batteries powered it, a small red light appeared on the side of the device, informing Kenma that’s it is on and ready to be used. “Alright,” Kenma rummaged through his bag to find a gas mask, a sharp knife, and a lighter for emergency. He walked towards the door to the stairs and carefully opened it to check if the infected had began it’s decaying, which means spores spouting out of them to the air, which means a possibility of becoming an infected if one inhales the spores, which also means death.

Spores infected air would often smells like burnt rotten flesh (Not that Kenma has ever sniffed a burning rotten flesh; he just assumes that a burning rotten flesh would smell like it.) Kenma lightly sniffed the air inside and he could clearly smell the burning rotten flesh scent. He really hated wearing the gas mask because it covers his whole face and it’s not so comfortable to wear. But choosing between wearing an uncomfortable mask and turning into an infected, any sane person would choose the former.

The small man tightens the mask around his face to make sure no leakage. He gripped his knife in his hand like it’s another part of his body, the lighter ready in his pants pocket ready to be taken out anytime, a flashlight on his left hand with it’s rope around Kenma's wrist so it doesn’t fall off, and then the device attached to his belt that can start working after a small turn on one of the knobs. “Just like a video game. Let’s go,” He reassured himself. Yes, using a video game as a comparison might one day make Kenma regret it but it’s the only thing he could think of.

With the littlest sound ever, Kenma opened the door wider and points the flashlight to the stairways. One was standing in front of Kenma as he entered the place; it was facing the wall in the corner, oblivious about Kenma's existence. Kenma wanted to know the exact number of infected there are in the staircase from the second floor to the third, then to the fourth. From his prediction before, he had the guess of six infected, eight at most maybe. The number he came up with was only a speculation, there could might be only three in there but there also could be twenty in there.

After seeing one after a second he stepped in, he began counting. He silently made his way up the stairs and found two more infected halfway up the stairs to the third floor. ' _That’s three',_ he noted. Walking past the other two, Kenma reaches the door of the third floor. In front of the door was zero infected. So between floor two to three was three infected in total. Kenma began making his way up to the fourth floor and found another infected wandering around the stairs aimlessly. Then in the corner of the stairs, just in front of the door leading towards the fourth floor was an infected's decaying body sitting on the ground, dead, as it releases amounts of spores to the air.

 _'That’s three completely active infected, one decaying, and one pre-decaying'._ The pre-decaying one was the one he first saw, the one facing the wall like a grounded child. Pre-decaying infected is not a really active one, they often show signs of staying in one place and not moving at all, though they will move if bothered, but their movement will be slower since their body is decaying, basically destroyed.

There’s nothing Kenma could do about the decaying infected but to just leave it there. From the fourth floor, Kenma placed his hand on the knob of the device before turning it to one way. His ears couldn’t hear the sound at all but he knew it was working since the infected in front of him began turning its head left and right as if confused to where he should go. Kenma bravely raised his knife and slashed the infected right on the neck. It fell to the ground, dead, and Kenma continued down the stairs to the third floor. The two infected there were already feeling the effect of the device; they couldn’t find their way and one of them hissed like cat, bearing its teeth.

With no time to spare, Kenma stabbed his knife into the infected's neck before wiggling it roughly. The infected gripped Kenma's arm, preventing him from pulling away. He let go of his grip on the knife and grabbed the handle of the knife with his other free hand letting the flashlight to dangle from his left wrist. Kenma pulled the knife from one side to the other side of the neck, cutting open the infected's neck open. Letting oxidized brown blood to gush out like a fountain.

Huffing out, Kenma fell back to the wall behind him as the infected fell down the stairs. ' _One active and one pre-decaying left'_ , Kenma thought. With just killing two, Kenma was already exhausted. He really was not one to do some dirty killing work; it’s just not his thing. But it’s the only thing he can do now.

The other infected on that floor was aggressively hissing and scratching the door to the third floor, salon. ‘ _But why?’_ Kenma wondered. To they know that it's a door? Can they know that the loud ringing in the ears is basically blinding them from knowing ways?

Kenma breathe through the gas mask slowly before finishing the infected like he did to the other two. _That’s three down, another one left,_ Kenma made his way to the staircase of the second floor but stopped when he found no infected there. He cocked his head to the side and checked the stairs to the first floor. It was empty. The last infected was a pre-decaying, it shouldn’t be able to move around that freely. Going back to the second floor, Kenma noticed something he didn’t see last time, the door to the second floor was slightly open. He was sure that he had closed the door when he entered the staircases.

“What is going on?” he mumbled through the gas mask. It was hot wearing the gas mask, Kenma was sweating both because of the heat and the nervousness of the missing infected. Pushing open the door to the second floor, he looked around him before continuing deeper into the store. The place wasn’t big at all; just a lot of toy racks that made the room feel smaller and more cramped. Kenma moved from his place to check each isles of the room and found it standing in the corner of the room where Kenma left his bag and the supplies he got. ‘ _Why is it there?’_ Kenma walked towards it with his knife up, ready to stab it but as soon as the sound of Kenma's boots click on the floor, the infected turned its head towards him. ‘ _Huh? Did it just hear me?’_ The infected snarled at Kenma before lunging at him.

Kenma was pushed down to the ground with the infected pinning him down. He held the infected’s neck with his arm to stop it from biting a chunk of him away. The way it moved and the power it held was not like what a pre-decaying infected would have. A zoo of curses spilled from Kenma’s mouth as he struggled from the infected’s attack. Its saliva drops down from the mouth along with snarls and hisses. Kenma raised his short leg and placed his whole power to kick the infected to the side. It crashed to the racks behind him resulting to its falling and making a domino effect towards the other racks. Kenma cringed from the loud noise and crossed his fingers that the strangers that drove by had attracted and killed all the other infected in the area.

Kenma hid behind the counter without a single sound. With heavy breathing, Kenma checked the device on his belt and found the small red light off. He tapped the device but it didn’t turn on. Looking at the back of the device, Kenma cursed silently as he found only two batteries sticking in the battery slot. ‘ _Where did the other one go?’_ Kenma thought of when the battery could have fallen off. His mind went back to when he fell back against the wall when he was at the third floor. It must’ve fallen off then.

Fighting an infected without the device and only with a knife wouldn’t be easy at all. He needed something that is not a close range weapon. A gun would be too loud; maybe if there’s a baseball bat somewhere, he might be able to kill it. Japan is an odd place, but when Kenma searched under the counter for something useful, he wasn’t surprised to find some porn magazines, a pack of gums from God knows when, some crumpled papers, and a crowbar.

Kenma took the rusting crowbar from under the counter. ‘ _This should do the job’,_ he nod his head in approval. Making small silent steps, Kenma went behind the infected that was roaming around the room and smacked its head with the crowbar. The infected fell to the ground but Kenma didn’t stop hitting it and stabbing it multiple times with the sharp end of the crowbar. It screeched and moved violently trying to free itself but after numbers of hitting and stabbing it finally stopped and yet Kenma didn’t stop hitting the corpse with the crowbar.

The feeling of hitting something repeatedly was stress relieving. As if his own body and actions was not controlled by himself, he kept going on until the body in front of him bear not a humanly shape anymore. He looked down to his dirtied clothes and clenched his teeth for no obvious reasons.

Letting go of the crowbar, Kenma glanced to his palm to find rusts on his skin; thankfully the crowbar didn’t scratch him enough to make a wound, so he just wiped it away on his pants. He gulped and took off the gas mask that was covering his face. Instead of helping him breathe, the gas mask just made it seem harder to do so. Thick brown blood slowly covers a part of the floor where the infected lay dead and Kenma wondered what just happened during the last half an hour.

It faked itself as a pre-decaying infected when it’s actually still an active one. Was it even possible? “Perhaps their brains grew a little over the years.” This was horrible news, if an infected turned intelligent, earth might turn to a non-curable world. But there really isn’t a thing Kenma could do about the situation. Government is a goner, Washijou is taking over Tokyo and maybe one day the whole Japan, Kuroo’s not here anymore, and Kenma is slowly losing hope on everything.

He wished that maybe he could close his eyes to sleep and wake up back at his bed realizing all of that was a dream. But no, no matter how many times Kenma closed his eyes, each time it opens; it showed the same fucked up world.


	2. Lost in Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He lifted his bag over his shoulder before answering, “Those demons.” Just hearing that, Kageyama already knew who they were. His brows scrunched. “Why?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter. A few more characters introduced. Enjoy.

On another side of Japan up at North a little, Daichi Sawamura, was coordinating with his team about the cleared perimeters. The map of Miyagi was spread across the floor of the meeting room that was originally a classroom for preschoolers. It had marks on it for the regions that has been mostly cleared and searched by them. And by means of search and cleared doesn’t mean that the regions are free of infected but they are confirmed of free from Washijou’s group or any other groups.

They were discussing about moving slightly closer to Yamagata. Their whole goal now is to survive the world, make sure to make as little acquaintance with other groups. “Hinata, Kageyama, have you gotten any more information from Kenma about Washijou?”

Hinata glanced to his dark haired friend who nodded at him before turning back to Daichi. “Nothing really much except for Washijou gaining more speeds on the cities around Tokyo, he’s succeeded taking over Tsukuba and now he’s making his steps to Utsunomiya. With his current pace, Kenma predicted around ten months, a year is not likely but not impossible, and the whole of Utsunomiya will be his.”

“And the people there?” Daichi asked. Hinata and Kageyama pursed their lips. ”The same, he acts all mighty saving people when he was at the same time producing more infected outside of his regions.” The group stayed silent, just hearing that made them feel bad for the strangers that thought they had been saved by Washijou, when they’d end up dead if they’re not useful for him.

“Let’s focus back on the original plan,” Daichi called when he noticed the mood going down after the mention of Washijou’s action. “Yeah! Let’s lighten up! We’re meeting back up with everyone soon,” Akane Yamamoto cheered. The others silently agreed and the mood seems to go back to normal, Daichi gave the younger girl a nod before continuing with the plan.

Their group was separated into three with Daichi's group being team 3, they haven’t met with the other two groups for nearly a year. Daichi missed being back with his friend, Sugawara and Asahi along with the others. Akane missed seeing her older brother who she praised very much. Yui also missed talking with the quiet, often nervous Hitoka Yachi and the always calm Kiyoko Shimizu. Everyone had someone they wanted to see and that feeling made them want to quickly jump to the next week immediately.

After the meeting ended, Kageyama and Hinata said their goodbye to the group for the moment. They had their backpacks in their car with the remaining members of the group stood in the preschool entrance. “We’ll meet you guys again in a few days, this time with Kenma. Take care.” Hinata waved his hand as he entered the passenger seat of the car when Kageyama had been waiting in the driver’s seat.

A small crowd of ‘goodbye'-s, ‘take care'-s, and a few incoherent words from Nishinoya. Daichi approached the car to where Kageyama was sitting in with the windows down. The leader gave the two another smile and opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by Kageyama remembering something. “Daichi-san, if you meet someone with this sign on their clothes or anywhere, please get as far away from them as possible. Though I’m sure that you already know about this. Please remind the others that still haven’t known about it.” Kageyama dug through the glove box and took out a paper with a symbol on it. He accepted the paper and kept it in his palm.

This time Daichi was the one to talk, “Be careful there okay?”

“We will, don’t worry,” Kageyama assured, placing a hand on Daichi’s shoulder.

Daichi gave a nod and stepped away from the car to finally let them leave. The others waved their hands as the car drove away into the distance. Daichi turned to the four people behind him and placed his hands on his hips. “Now, let’s get ready for our own departing.” Akane and Nishinoya basically jumped back inside beaming with happiness as the others followed not far behind.

Ennoshita stepped beside Daichi and peeked to the paper that Kageyama gave him. “What is it?”

Daichi opened the folded paper on his grasp and showed a symbol drawn on it. There was a circle and an ‘X’ drawn over the circle. It was a symbol Daichi didn’t ever want to see again in his life. The humiliation, torture, and breakdowns were too overwhelming for him. He could only hope that Kenma’s friends that were captured there were able to escape safely.

He handed the symbol to Ennoshita and followed the others not far behind, catching up with the other three in front of him. They all gathered back at the torn down school and began packing things up, they couldn’t take a lot of things with them because their path they will be taking won’t be able to let a car through.

“Sawamura, are we going to bring this with us?” Yui pointed to the box of guns they found when they first reached the school. From what they could see, it appears that a mafia also used the preschool as their base and died there since they found some remains of human skeleton bones locked in a room. They assume they were mafias because of the number of fire weapon they had at that time.

When Kenma first gave them a gun, it was a simple hand gun that people would only see from televisions in action movies. Everyone asked where he got it from and he said that he knew someone who used to sell guns to mafias. They didn’t dig deeper and only accepted the weapon.

“We’ll just leave it in the car. If the others decided to take it, we can just walk back to the car to get it,” Daichi ordered. Yui nodded her head and together with Ennoshita, dragged the guns to the car. Nishinoya just came back from patrolling the surroundings and reported that there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Daichi placed the last bag to the car and looked behind him to the abandoned preschool. The paintings on the side walls all stained and plants rooting around the school like it owned it. Akane went into the car and called for Daichi from the window. He waved his hand and hopped into the car before they drove away.

“Where are we meeting Kenma again?” Hinata asked.

“Oyama,” Kageyama replied shortly. “Too bad we couldn’t get there in just two hours now that the toll is destroyed and blocked.”

“Yeah, it’ll take us maybe a whole day going through the clear route. Around the same time for Kenma-san to be there since he’s walking from Shibuya City.”

“Yeah.” Hinata slightly slouched his back. His mind went back to the time when their group used to be always together and lively just after they freed themselves from Washijou's grasp.

A lot of things happened in such a short span of time, not giving anyone time to take a breather. Without a leader, they forced their way into finding a solution to their situation. Their work piled up and even Kenma got too exhaused with everything that he nearly lost it. When things were supposed to end peacefully, a small detail was left forgotten and developed into a huge catastrophe which resulted in Kuroo's death, the group’s long pause, and the fear that was casted on them.

They must say, it was truly traumatic. When the apocalypse happened, they somehow were able to grasp on things slowly and steadily, but the next two-three years took a lot more from them. Lives being played like toys in front of them, the impossible becoming the most possible. And deaths of loved ones that took half of themselves away.

The car ride remained silent as the two men recalled the precious memories when everything was slightly better than this. Not that spending time with Daichi’s group didn’t bring any good, but Kageyama and Hinata missed how things used to be beefore all this.

With Kenma being annoyed by their leader but didn’t do anything about it, Bokuto laughing happily as if there was no apocalypse, Tsukishima’s grin from the corner of the room, Eri Miyanoshita’s soft smile, and the many details of those times. It made everyone think of every ‘what if’ scenarios in their heads.

“Why do you think Kenma’s doing this?” Hinata asked out of the blue as he looked out the window. Kageyama glanced beside him before quickly turning back to the road in front of him.

“What do you mean?” The driver asked with brows knitted together. Hinata let out a breath while flailing his hands in the air. “All this, the saving people game we’ve been doing.” Kageyama’s brows deepen at Hinata’s use of the word ‘game’ when it comes to them saving lives.

But Kageyama couldn’t help but to also wonder why. Yeah, why was Kenma saving all these poor people he found? He was not the type of person to save people he doesn’t know.

“It’s unlike him to do things for other people,” Hinata spoke Kageyama’s mind. But Kageyama didn’t want to think badly of Kenma. They were all alive to this day thanks to him too; he did all that for the team. Yet the lingering feeling about the hidden meaning behind it never left his side.

“What do you think is the reason?” he asked his companion beside him. Hinata looked back to Kageyama before raising both of his shoulders. “Just to make himself feel better?”

“About?” Kageyama tilted his head.

Hinata stayed silent for a moment. They’ve been together since the apocalypse. Hinata should know Kenma better than anyone else other than Kuroo. The two clicked the moment they met each other, even Kuroo was surprised at how much Kenma had opened up to Hinata. And whatever Hinata was about to say might come from the length of time he has known Kenma for and how much he knew him.

“Kuroo-san’s death,” Hinata shortly concluded. It went silent, only the sound of the car engine taking over and the birds chirping loudly outside.

Kageyama couldn’t deny what Hinata just said because it all made sense. Kenma was strongly against it when Kuroo said he wanted to save the other people in Washijou’s base when they themselves were barely able to escape back then. Even though Kenma was always right beside Kuroo, he also knew when to say 'no' to his words.

But when Kuroo was about to plan things out without Kenma’s help with the others, he couldn’t help but to also fall in. So in the end, Kenma was the one to plan things out for the rescue. They got what they wanted, those strangers saved from pure hell. But they also lost something in there. Something major for them. Something precious. Their Kuroo.

Kenma didn’t know if it was worth it or not, saving plenty of lives he doesn’t care about in exchange of the single life that he loved. Each day he told himself that it’s not. It’s not worth it at all. They could all die in a ditch that very second for all he would care.

But each life he saved during these past years, he asked himself, _‘I might understand what he meant when he said he wanted to save these people if I save them myself.’_ six years passed and he still haven’t gotten the answer he was looking for. He couldn’t feel the empathy that Kuroo might’ve felt back then. The shower or ‘thank you’-s and appreciation never touched him, it never reached him.

“What do you think would happen after he felt better?” Kageyama asked. Hinata pinched his chin, thinking what would happen then.

“What would change?” he repeated. Rain slowly began falling from the sky and the further they went, the heavier the rain got.

They drove for a few hours without end; the rain kept starting and stopping over and over again. Once the trees began turning to buildings with limited trees and roads blocked with cars and other vehicles, they stopped and got out of the car. Hinata took the walkie-talkie from the glove box and turned it on. If Kenma were in the range of the communicator’s, they should be able to communicate with each other.

They left the car hidden in a public parking lot amongst other broken down cars. They had agreed to meet at Oyama General Park which was in the center of Oyama. The two walked silently towards their destination under the light shower of rain.

The vibe their surroundings were giving was not pleasant. It was eerie. As if something would jump out of nowhere and suddenly stab them in the abdomen. So they walked with their heads turning left and right sometimes looking over their shoulders, eyes drifting to each side where someone could be hiding.

They never thought that Oyama could be this eerie. Perhaps it was because of the darkening sky and the harsh wind. The sound of leaves brushing against each other and the bushes rustling from the wind were able to put them quite on edge.

Once they reached their destination, the feeling stepped aside as the view in front of them took their breath away. The park was not like it was before anymore. The grasses growing were already thigh-high; the kid’s playground that used to be filled with children running around was now only a rusty build of metal poles, taken over by vines. They walked over a bridge and underneath were a strong stream of river that could swept away anyone and anything that falls there.

Hinata pulled his jacket closer to himself as a gust of wind hit them. His orange hair brushed against his skin tickling the top of his neck. “It’s nearly winter,” Kageyama said from behind Hinata. Both their gaze were far to where the stream was heading. The sun in the distant washed the land with a soft orange hue.

“Let’s continue.” Kageyama walked away, crossing the bridge. Hinata glanced once more to the setting sun before following his dark haired friend.

The walkie talkie on Hinata’s side buzzed with static sounds followed by a familiar voice from the other side. _“Shoyou? Kageyama?”_

The two stopped at their track as Hinata pulled the walkie talkie closer to his face. “Kenma, where are you?”

There was a pause for a minute. Kageyama and Hinata looked to each other worriedly. “Kenma?” the human tangerine called.

 _“I’ll meet you two near the water source on the side of the park!”_ and then it ended. From what they could hear, Kenma was most likely either being chased or chasing though it’s most likely the former. He was panting when he spoke to them, even during his first contact. The two wanted to find Kenma quickly but they didn’t know where to head, so they only followed Kenma’s instruction and look for the water source on the side of the park.

The night was falling; the sky was not orange anymore but had turned to a dark twilight. The veiled stars turned the night pitch black. They pulled out their flashlight and light their path with that. Once they got far enough, they could hear flowing water over the rustling trees in the distance.

They followed the sound of where it was coming from and found a pile of rock where in the middle was a water source. The small pile was covered by tall grass but they were able to find it. Kageyama looked around, flashing his light to their surroundings.

There was no sign of any living human or any infected around them. He looked back to Hinata who was tinkering with the walkie talkie, impatiently waiting for a word from Kenma. His fingernails tapping at the plastic device. The tapping stopped when the two whipped their head to the side were they could hear the grass rustling as if there was something hiding behind it.

Kageyama had a knife ready on his grip while Hinata held a metal bat beside his face. They glanced at each other when one of them gave a curt nod. “Who’s there?” They asked a question that a living human should be able to answer because if it were an infected, it would’ve jumped straight at them rather than hiding behind tall grasses.

The sound of metal gun clicking made the two frozen. They couldn’t fight a gun with a knife or a bat from that distance. But they couldn’t back down just because their opponent happened to have a better weapon than them. Kageyama flashed his light between the grasses and the person hiding behind it hissed at the sudden light piercing their pair of eyes.

Seeing the person distracted, Hinata jumped into action and swung his bat at the stranger who aimlessly pulled the trigger that shot towards the dark sky. The stranger had a quite average male build, dark hair and a pair of thick brows. One of his eyes was covered with a white bandage that had a blotch of red in the middle of it. His other eye looked as if it were lazily opened with boring brown pupil staring back at Hinata who had the person pinned down to the ground.

The gun was out of his grip as he laid on the grass stiffly before raising both of his hands in surrender. “I’m not looking for a fight. I don’t have any supplies you can rob from me,” he said in defense.

Hinata squinted his eyes in suspicion. “And we’re not looking for someone to rob. Why are you here?” he spat.

“Some-someone told me to wait here. I’m meeting someone.” He rambled.

“Who?”

The person hesitated for a moment but Hinata placed more pressure on him which was taking air away from his desperate lungs. He shook his head before saying, “I don’t suggest you to try and rob him. He might rob you instead-“ before he could finish, Hinata clicked his tongue. “We’re not here to rob people. Who is it?” 

As the person was opening and closing his mouth, still contemplating to say the person's name or not, the grass in front of them rustled again. Hinata raised his head while Kageyama flashed his lights again. This time, the person who appeared had a slightly pale peach colored hair. He blocked the lights with his arms and lowered it when he saw who was on the ground in front of him.

A snort released from his nose. He desperately tried to hide it but failed when burst out laughing. Another person smacked the back of his head which stopped his laughing. This time, the face that appeared was familiar. It was the one they had been waiting for, Kenma.

“Don’t be so loud. Matsukawa?” Kenma's eyes looked to the ground where the stranger called ‘Matsukawa' was pinned down underneath Hinata.

“You know them, Kenma-san?” Kageyama asked.

Kenma looked back and forth between the three of them before stopping at Matsukawa. “You didn’t tell them?”

“I was wondering what Kozume-kun's companions are like.” In a single swift, Matsukawa was able to escape from Hinata’s pin by tossing his to the side. Hinata was left dumbfounded; he was a fully grown man by this time. He’s thick and heavy but this man only tossed him to the side as if he were just a sack of rice.

“We’re friends,” Matsukawa pointed to Kenma who smacked his finger away.

“Acquaintance,” Kenma corrected to which the peach haired man nodded his head calmly. Matsukawa let out a sigh before leaning to the peach haired guy.

“This is Hanamaki,” he introduced. Hanamaki raised a hand in greeting.

Kageyama and Hinata looked at each of them one by one before repeating the process only to stop at Kenma who held the same bored expression. Guessing the question from the two’s face, Kenma gave them a nod that practically said, _‘yes, we’re not joking'_

“That’s Hinata and Kageyama,” Kenma introduced to them. Kageyama pursed his lips and nodded in acknowledge while Hinata blinked it away.

After the brief introduction, the five of them settled somewhere where they could spend the night at. And from the look of the unseen stars, they could speculate that maybe rain might fall down during night. So they propped themselves in one of the abandoned buildings. They had confirmed it free from infected since Matsukawa and Hanamaki had been sleeping there for two nights.

They settled in a room and some were sitting while the others were standing. “So?” Hinata started.

“Right,” Kenma mumbled. “They are my informant. We exchange information for information. Some times they’d accept supplies but most of the time they’d rather be paid with more information,” Kenma shortly explained. Kageyama and Hinata looked to the two informants. They don’t seem suspicious but anything could happen.

“And you’re meeting them here?”

Kenma nodded his head after chugging down half a bottle of water. He wiped the end of his lips with the sleeve of his jacket. “Their base got raided so I was helping them find a place for a moment,” he sighed.

“And where are they based at right now?” Kenma raised his hand motioning it at the building they’re at. “Their underlings aren’t here yet. You can say that they’re still looking around right now.”

“You should leave tonight, Kozume-kun,” Matsukawa said from the other side of the room where was peering down outside the window. “They came earlier than I thought.”

Kageyama stumbled to the window and looked down to see three people nearing the building. “Who are they?” Kageyama asked. He turned to see Kenma already packed and ready at the door with Hinata right beside him, face half filled with confusion.

He lifted his bag over his shoulder before answering, “Those demons.” Just hearing that, Kageyama already knew who they were. His brows scrunched. “Why?”

“I’ll explain on the way. I really don’t need them pestering on me.” He waved his hand at the two informants and left with Kageyama and Hinata right behind him.

“Be careful,” Hanamaki waved his hand back.


	3. Let's Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kenma stayed silent while Hinata dismissed him with a smile and a few words of reassurance. Kageyama glanced worriedly among the two. He had been going around with Hinata like a set for years but never understood how he got along with Kenma. Kenma was the type who doesn’t like noisy people and yet he got along with Hinata who was like a human radio that stays on 24/7.  
> “Whatever you say.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter yaall... 
> 
> surprise surprise  
> :D

_‘Cold'_ he thought. No, it’s not him just thinking that it’s cold, it’s him knowing that it’s cold. The shrilling chill on his skin from the rainstorm poking on his skin like small needles that the coldness was able to numb away the pain coming from his torso. He had succeeded to turn his body to face up towards the sky and let out a cloudy breath. The muddy ground mixed with his own blood, pooled around him. It was both cold and warm at the same time.

His slender fingers gripped the ground letting dirt to seep underneath his nails. _‘I have to go to him'_

Looking to his side, he saw a tall wall of a cliff and he was at the bottom of it. He fell from the height and was luckily caught by the trees underneath. But he still suffered from quite troubling damage which might will still take away his life.

His mind kept going in and out every so often. His eyes blinking slowly where each blink turned the view even more blurry than before. He knew he’ll die if this keeps going on. But in this kind of situation, who would be here at this exact time?

 _‘I just want to see him one more time and apologize’_ he prayed. He prayed and prayed until emotions overcame him and brought tears to his eyes. The tears flowed down with the rain as he laid there. If only he was not so careless, if only he at least listened to his words and not let his own feelings get in the way, he might would’ve survived all this with him and not on his own.

 _Alone_.

His eyelids slowly began to give up as its weight felt heavier and heavier before finally closing. He never felt this warm before in his life. It was as if he was being cradled like a baby by a mother whose body warmth was never too far. It hugged him and shuffled. Shuffled? Somewhere in the distance from his ears, he could head rumbling thunders, shaking trees, heavy rain, and shouting. A shout.

Did the God listen to his prayers? His eyes begged to open but couldn’t so his trembling lips moved instead. There it is, he could feel warmth amongst the coldness, and it was close to his face. _“Take me... to... him,”_ he muttered. He could hear a distant _‘what?’_ and _‘who?’_ from whoever was right beside him. But he didn’t have the power left to answer, to say his name.

_Kenma Kozume_

“Daichi-san!” Nishinoya called out. Daichi appeared from behind the trees and sprinted to where Nishinoya was kneeling at. There was a person in front of him. Just from the looks of it no one needs to be a professional to know that if this person stays any longer in the cold, he’ll certainly die.

“Michimiya,” Daichi whipped his head behind to Yui. She was the only one among them who had the most experience with medical terminology. She’s basically the doctor of the team. Kenma picked her up from a group several months ago where she was being forced to stay since she had nowhere else to go. He had saved several other hostages but only Yui was the one that decided to go with Kenma.

Yui quickly jumped beside the man and knelt down before pressing two fingers to his neck. It was faint but she could fell a pulse in there. She pulled out a clean cloth from her bag and pressed it to the open wound. She took Nishinoya’s hand and told him to press the wound as she checks for any more wounds that the person might possesses.

Akane and Ennoshita stood a little further back to give them space to be able to do want they were doing. “What do we do about this?” Daichi wiped the rain water from his face.

“We'll take him with us,” he decided.

“But how are we going to carry him for the rest of the way?” Nishinoya said loud enough for their captain to hear from the rain.

That’s right; they have to walk on foot before reaching Karasuno and only if they’re lucky that they’ll find a vehicle with enough gas to take them to their destination. Otherwise, they’ll be walking on foot until they reach Karasuno.

Daichi turned his head to Nishinoya while asking, “How much longer until we reach Karasuno?”

Nishinoya looked to the cliff beside them and concluded, “Two days? Three at most. That’s without a car.”

“Will he hold that long?” Daichi asked Yui.

She shook her head with pursed lips. “No, not at all. Even with his big body that looked healthy, he can’t survive two days without proper medication. And who’s going to carry him?” everyone looked to the man's large build and scratched the back of their heads. Even if someone were able to carry him, they’d only last two to three hours before asking for a break.

Everyone paused and thought for a moment. Daichi was about to tell them that they should go back for now and come to Karasuno after the man had at least have enough strength to travel but Nishinoya beat him to it. “I’ll go on ahead while you guys can go back and treat him. I’ll tell the other about what happened here.”

“Are you sure you’re able to leave on your own?” Their leader made sure. Nishinoya peeked behind Daichi to where Ennoshita and Akane were standing and pulled a smile.

“Akane-chan, do you want to come with me?” Akane raised her eyebrows, surprised but didn’t decline. She stepped away and went over to Nishinoya’s side.

“Don’t worry Daichi-san. I’ll make sure Noya-san doesn’t go off track,” she proudly puffed her chest.

Nishinoya nudged her and chuckled, “I know these roads better than any of you.”

Daichi smiled and nodded his head. “Alright then, that’s settled. You two will go forth to Karasuno and we’ll catch up with you.”

“One month, one month before I go pick you guys up to check if you all are dead,” he joked. Daichi and Ennoshita picked the stranger man up and placed his arms around their shoulders with Ennoshita pressing down on the wound with the blood soaked cloth. Yui worriedly went after the other two men before stopping and turning back to Akane. She placed a quick kiss on top of her head. “Be careful.”

Yui and Akane, being the only two girls in the team bonded together very easily. Akane was beyond happy when Yui arrived at their small base. And Yui was relieved to see another girl there. Being tied down to a certain group that had ill intentions for some times took her out in many ways. Being surrounded by too many men sometimes would make her panic but after a good amount of time spending time with everyone else at team 3, she could see the different qualities between these people.

Akane placed both fists on her hips before nodding her head eagerly. “Go save a life.” Yui followed after Daichi and Ennoshita not far behind as they make their way back to the car.

Nishinoya turned around and began tracking into the forest followed by Akane right behind his tail. Nishinoya knew the surrounding areas quite well from the supply runs with Hinata and Kageyama, and the amount of patrolling he’d done. Every hundred meters, Nishinoya would make a cut on a tree, pointing to where to go for when Daichi and the others decided to come to Karasuno.

Kenma, Hinata, and Kageyama entered the car and quickly drove away from the park. Kageyama would often glance at the rear view mirror to check if they found them or not and was thankful glad to see the road behind them empty. Turning his gaze to Kenma, Kageyama began to ask, “So why are they there too?”

Kenma looked back to him from the rear view mirror. “Matsukawa and Hanamaki are neutral informants. If they have the price, anyone get what they want if they have the payment. I was hesitant to meet them with you two but figured that it’s inevitable.”

“They didn’t know that you actually have a whole team?” Hinata asked from beside the driver’s seat.

“They thought I’m a lone survivor. I had to make excuses about your existence.”

“So they’re neither a friend nor a foe?” Kageyama concluded. Kenma hummed in reply from the back seats.

“You have to think it through before deciding what information to sell to them.” He let out a yawn and stretched his sore arms, joints cracking from the pull. Letting his body to lay down on the seats, his eyes began to flutter close, falling into a deep sleep.

Hinata glanced back and was amazed at how fast he fell asleep. They drove out of Oyama and stopped near a river to rest. The next morning came in a flash for them and this time Kenma was the one driving since Hinata and Kageyama took turns being on watch while Kenma slept like a baby in the car.

Hinata and Kenma caught up with several things as Kageyama slept at the back seat. The sky was cloudy but no rain fell from the sky. They could see the trees outside shaking from the harsh wind. They had the windows open and let the brushing leaves to be music for them.

Since they took the long way to Oyama, they drove along the road beside the sea. Salty wind blowing with the sound of waves crashing from the beach, pushing and pulling the sand. A thunder broke in the distance, far ahead in the middle of the sea that’s too far for them to see but sounded clear enough for them to hear. Winter will be harsh for them in the next months. They predicted that snow will most likely fall since for the last number of years, no winter went past without snow burying them.

Each winter, everyone meet up together again before parting ways again at the beginning of spring just before the flowers begin to bloom. Kenma would join them every few years but he hasn’t for the last two years because he thought that it was too far to go to Miyagi under the cold weather from where he was then.

Hinata turned to the driver and observed him. One of his hands was on the steering wheel while the other was used for his chin to lean on. His hair was now all black since it outgrew the dyed blond. Seeing him with his all dark hair pulled back to a ponytail has been a sight since long. Now with his hair dark, the gold from his eyes seems to be more visible thanks to the contrast between it and his hair. But those were not the same eyes as it was six years ago and he knew what changed him.

“Do you miss Kuroo-san, Kenma?” Hinata asked. The air seemed to freeze from the question. Kenma wanted to grip the steering wheel with all his might but held himself. His eyes blinked slowly, lashes curling up.

Such a simple question but his throat tightens at it. “I do. I miss him everyday,” he answered. It was bland, so bland. It’s not that Kenma didn’t miss Kuroo, but it was a question that doesn’t need to be asked because the answer will always be that. It’s one of those questions that whatever happened, the answer will be the same for him.

Hinata didn’t ask any further question. He only hummed in acknowledgment and stared back at the road in front of him. He pitied Kenma. Holding onto the dead, trying to understand it even though it had been proven impossible to him plenty of times. It sometimes ticks him off seeing Kenma, the smartest, wisest, the one who knew the most among them to ask a question that even a child would know that there’s no answer to it.

Some moments made him feel like pulling Kenma aside and slapping him across the face before shouting at him to stop looking miserable because of the dead. Looking miserable because of something that isn’t there anymore. He wanted to tell him to act more like he used to be. More mean and straightforward. More blunt remarks without any sugar coating.

“Do you have something troubling you, Shoyou?” Hinata's jaws clenched. There it was, the calm and polite way of him speaking as if he was mocking him.

“It’s you,” he said. Kenma's brows pinched together. “How you cling to Kuroo-san's death for years and saving people, expecting answers in return.”

Kenma was taken back. His lazily opened eyes now more open. Though he doesn’t understand why it angered him so much. “What do you mean?”

“You’re better than this. You’re not some kid crying because of a dead loved one anymore. It was six years ago. Stop looking miserable like this, you’re being an eyesore like this.”

“I still don’t-“ his lips fell to a thin line with the ends falling down. “I’m not crying like a kid over a loved one.” his tone was clearly offended by Hinata's words. It was sudden, they were just catching up with stories a few hours ago and now he was picking a fight with him?

“Then why are you like this?”

“Like what—” He couldn’t continue because Hinata cut him off mid sentence, “You’re blatantly lying to yourself!”

Kenma let out a scoff, his fist gripping the steering wheel. “I’m not lying to myself. What am I lying about?!”

They began to raise their voice at one another after each sentence that spouts out of their mouths. Hinata was raising his voice while he kept pushing about what Kenma's problem was and Kenma was raising his voice because he couldn’t understand why Hinata was so annoyed at his problems and personal feelings.

“Just be honest with yourself and stop—”

“ _I’M FINE!_ ” Kenma shouted. The car finally fell silent as dribbles of rain began to fall down from the sky. It was as if instead of them crying, the sky was the one to do so. Kenma bit the inside of his cheek, he has every right to get angry when Hinata was suddenly prying in and shouting nonsense without any reason. But nonetheless, raising his voice at his friend really tugged his heart.

A groan sounded from the back seat as Kageyama sat up, awake from his sleep. He rubbed his eyes and glanced at the two in front of him, he could feel the tension between them. “What’s wrong?”

Kenma stayed silent while Hinata dismissed him with a smile and a few words of reassurance. Kageyama glanced worriedly among the two. He had been going around with Hinata like a set for years but never understood how he got along with Kenma. Kenma was the type who doesn’t like noisy people and yet he got along with Hinata who was like a human radio that stays on 24/7.

“Whatever you say.”

Kenma took several turns around the road before announcing their arrival. In front of them was an old abandoned school with yellowing walls and weeds growing everywhere. They stopped right in front of the school where they found Tanaka and Lev standing near the entrance.

“Kenma-san!” Lev called in excitement.

They exited the car and Kenma was welcomed by Lev’s long arms around his shoulders. Hinata and Kageyama walked over to Tanaka and greeted him as they all went in the school towards where the gymnasium was. They ran away from the rain and opened the heavy gym door to be greeted by several more pairs of eyes.

Team 1 and team 2 had arrived several days prior to them. Sugawara and Asahi were found talking together on the benches upstairs and quickly came down when they found out that the three had arrived.

While Hinata and Kageyama busied themselves with taking out Team 3’s supplies from their car, Kenma walked over to Sugawara and Asahi. He glanced around seeing less people in the gymnasium. “Is someone not here yet?”

Sugawara also followed Kenma’s eyes glancing around before nodding his head. “Team 3 isn’t here yet. Only Nishinoya and Akane-chan arrived saying that they found a survivor so they had to stay for a while. They’ll be late for a few weeks at least. Hopefully it doesn't snow until then.”

Kenma hummed and followed Sugawara outside and into the school building to one of the classes. Inside were piles of books from random novels for entertainment to science books for college students. The place could be a library if they’d like. Sugawara sat on a chair while Kenma walked around the room checking out each book there are.

“Anything major happened?” Kenma asked as his hands pry open a book and flipping through the page before closing it and opening another book.

“My team got attacked, we lost Hoshiumi.” Kenma raised his head, surprised.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He placed the books down and leaned on a wall facing Sugawara.

Sugawara waved his hand like it not a big deal. “It was a year ago. He bought us time knowing that he won’t survive, we’re alive thanks to him.”

Kenma hummed in response. Still, it must’ve been quite hard on them. ”Anything else?”

“Nothing else,” he waved. “What about you? You look worn out, what happened?” Kenma recalled his sudden fight with Hinata but didn’t mention it. He took off his hair tie, letting his dark hair to fall down before tilting his head to the side, trying to remember anything major that happened during the past two years.

“Nothing much except for the underground districts.”

Sugawara leaned closer, wanting to hear more of the information. “I suppose I can confirm that there are 25 districts, expanding from Tokyo, Yokohama, and its surroundings.”

“Nothing to concern us but the feeling what they’re doing down there is unpleasant.” Kenma swallowed his spit. “I snuck into district 21 which was through the entrance of the train station, it was filled ill people. They were dragged somewhere but I couldn’t get any deeper.”

Sugawara visibly cringed at the thought of what they might be doing down there. He let out a sign and stood back up from his seat. “We’re going to cook some soup, want to join us?”

“What? Join you eat or join you cook?” Kenma joked as he followed the silver haired guy outside.


	4. The Opening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, everything gets resolved by spring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short one but that means the next one will arrive faster. Some infected came so enjoy this scene of kenma stabbing some infected with tanaka.

When Sugawara said _‘soup'_ Kenma's mind thought of a normal soup that was just boiled water with vegetables and salt. What he wasn’t expecting was a huge pot of soup boiling in the back of the school where the club rooms usually are with a line of starved people. Asahi was stirring the pot with a long pole and Kenma could only blink there, also drowning in the mouth-watering broth smell.

“How do you do this?” He muttered as he neared the boiling pot.

Nishinoya who was standing eagerly beside Asahi noticed Kenma's surprised face and grinned. “Asahi-san is the chef of the year here.” He proudly tapped Asahi's back who jumped in surprise.

“It’s not that hard to make. Once you have the bravery to kill an animal you can cook anything,” Asahi beamed a sweet smile that doesn’t fit his large, macho build. Apparently from Asahi's explanation, making a soup wasn’t hard. Once they can cut open a chicken and boil it they can get broth easily, add some vegetables and sea salt and a simple chicken soup is already boiling.

“And the pot?” Kenma pointed.

“From the ramen shop a few streets down. Get your bowls,” he called. Everyone else was already with a bowl on their hands with watering mouths, making a line at the pot. Sugawara handed Kenma a bowl as they both waited for their turn.

The large pot was easily emptied in no time. Everyone ate until their bellies were full and ready to go to sleep. It’s rare to see people eat to their heart’s content during an apocalypse but perhaps some exceptions can often be made.

Kenma exhaled a satisfied breath as he leaned back, his head facing the sky. Sugawara and Hana Misaki also let out a breath. “Have you all gone through the whole school?” Kenma asked.

Sugawara thought a moment before answering the question, “We’ve checked for infected and thankfully found none, and I guess schools are too risky for people to use as a base.”

“Oh! And good news,” Sugawara remembered, “we found a generator in the school. It’s a bit used but can still hold out quite long.”

“And the faucets at the back works,” Hana added. It was a lot more than Kenma thought. He didn’t know how much of the generator power were used but if they use it smartly, they might will have electricity for quite a long time. Running water always means good news, it can be used for drink, washing, and plenty more.

Asahi and a few of the others began to clean up the space and dragged the pot to the back of the school to, which Kenma guessed was to wash it. As everyone began to go back to work, Kenma requested to him to see the generator. Sugawara lead him through the dark and gloomy halls of the school and found it sitting in one of the classrooms.

The classroom was also dark and gloomy because of the dark sky outside. There were remaining of food wrappers most likely from years ago, and a few empty food cans. Someone must have used the school as a base for a little while and were the ones that used the generator.

After being checked, Kenma figured that the generator can still be used for quite a long time. It was used, but how much can one or two people use? So the energy was still nearly fully intact. “Let’s take this to the gym,” Kenma said as he pulled up the sleeves of his red jacket.

The two men began to pull the generator along the hallway and stopped when they neared a flight of stairs. Sugawara went first, holding the bottom part while Kenma went after, holding the other side. They went down to the first floor but paused for a second the moment they stepped outside.

Where everyone were standing and lousing around ten minutes ago was empty and deserted. “Where’s everyone?” the two continued to drag the generator and reached the gym where they found Hana and Shimizu.

“Kenma! Suga! An attack,” one of them said. Sugawara and Kenma immediately rushed to their weapons and sprinted out. Sugawara went to the front gate of the school while Kenma went to the other side.

Kenma ran with his short legs and slowed down when he reached closer to the back of the school. The back and the front were different by the gate that surrounds the school. When the front gate was open and everyone can see everything just from the gate, the back gate was the opposite. Because the behind the school was a forest of trees that went up the mountain, it was harder to spot anything from out there.

Kenma hid behind a wall and peeked from there, a knife gripped on his hand. He could see one infected walking sloppily towards him without knowing Kenma was there. As the infected walked past the wall, showing its back to Kenma, the man jumped into action and stabbed it right that the back of the neck before pushing in the knife to one side. Dark brown blood fountained out of its neck as if fell down to the ground, dead.

He let out a huff and continued to walk when a pair of rotten arms wrapped around his neck. He clenched his teeth, _‘I didn’t order a hug from anyone!’_ he held the infected’s jaw tightly to stop it from sinking its teeth to his flesh. At the same time, the grip around him also tightens and pressed on his throat, blocking his airway.

His hand raised the knife and swung it at the head right beside him. He pulled it out and pushed it back again before repeating it until he was coated with a layer of brown blood on the right side of his face. When the grip around him began to fall, Kenma silently gagged at the smell of blood around him.

 _“Kenma!”_ someone whisper-shout. Kenma turned his head to where he was called from and found Tanaka with Yamaguchi and Asahi right behind him. Kenma made sure no infected were near them and went over to the three hiding people.

They were cleaning the bowls and pot from the soup when the infected suddenly attacked. “Are you all okay?” they looked at each other and then to themselves, checking for any scars before nodding their heads.

“Are you okay, Kenma?” Yamaguchi asked after seeing the scene of Kenma bravely taking out two infected one after the other.

Kenma checked his right shoulder and neck, also making sure no scars were made from the attack. “I think I’m fine, I’ll have the medic do a double check later.” Kenma and the three of them whipped their heads when they heard a sound that was not usually made by human.

Tanaka, Yamaguchi, and Asahi didn’t have a weapon other than the long pole that Asahi used to stir the soup. Kenma motioned his hand to them that he’s going to check where the sound was coming from. They nodded their head and prepared themselves as Kenma walked first.

Kenma stopped at his track when two infected appeared from behind a pillar near the water faucet. Kenma dipped his hand into the pocket of his loose jacket and handed Tanaka a foldable knife. Tanaka slightly widened his eyes at the knife handed to him but thanked the man anyway.

Kenma told Asahi and Yamaguchi to stand right where they were but a few meters apart to become bait while Kenma and Tanaka can attack one each from behind. It went well, just as planned. Asahi and Yamaguchi clapped their hands and both infected turned to the source before staggering there. Just a few meters before they reached the two, Kenma and Tanaka slashed the creatures from behind, killing them without a hitch.

They regrouped together again and pursed their lips at the four dead infected. After looking around and making sure the place was clear of any more infected, they gave each other a high five which Kenma also came along lazily.

“We should go back,” Asahi said. The other three nodded their head and they went back towards the gymnasium. Inside the gym were everyone else, they let out a breath of relief and joined back with the others.

“Asahi-san!”

“Ryu,” Nishinoya and Shimizu called to the two out of four that just arrived. Shimizu went over to Tanaka and worriedly checked his body for any injuries like how a mother would to her child. While Nishinoya and Shimizu were busy with the person they cared for, Yamaguchi was talking to Sugawara about what happed and Hana was standing beside Kenma with both hands propped on her hips.

“Are you alright?” Hana asked from beside Kenma.

“I got hugged from behind, you might need to check,” Kenma said with a hint of annoyance at the memory of the attack that just happened. Hana glanced up and down at Kenma's red jacket that was covered with brown blood on one side and slightly red neck. Hana blinked at him and muttered an agreement before taking him into the medic tent.

The red jacket was now unusable anymore along with the plain shirt underneath that now lay on the floor in the corner of the room. His hair was tied to a low ponytail as Hana checked his neck and body for any scratched that might be infected.

“Hana-san,” Kenma called quietly as Hana examined Kenma’s red neck.

“Hmm?” She nodded at herself that his neck was fine and no skin was broke to be infected. So she moved to the rest of Kenma’s body.

Kenma didn’t say anything for half a second before sighing, “I need to talk to you about-“ before Kenma finished talking, Hana pulled his left arm up to reveal a bite mark at his triceps. “-this.”

Hana let Kenma’s arm to fall back down and took a step back as Kenma nervously held his upper arm insecurely. The medic’s eyes were wide as plate and her jaws had fell open. “Since when?”

“Six,” Kenma muttered quietly.

“Hours?! Why are you here?!” her voice was raising but she shut her teeth together to refrain from getting even louder, even glancing behind her to make sure no one heard her.

“Months…” The tent fell quiet. Kenma had his eyes drifted to somewhere in the room, away from Hana’s brown eyes. The look on Hana’s face was as though she was listening to Kenma talking to her in a totally different language from a whole different planet, total disbelieve and shock.

Kenma glanced to Hana and held eye contact for a full second before talking, “Will you believe me if I say it’s from six months ago?” Hana didn’t say anything; she only looked to Kenma’s covered upper arm and swallowed her spit. She carefully took a step closer to Kenma as if he was a wild beast that’d suddenly lunge at her if she moved too fast.

Figuring her intentions, Kenma lifted his hand away and showed the bite mark on the upper arm. Hana’s eyes were first on Kenma before it turned to the bite, she moved slowly and cautiously. As a former medical student, the feeling that she got just then was the same as back when she was on field work, filled with fear and disgust but also full of curiosity.

Her wide eyes examined the bite mark. She couldn’t confirm it that it was from six months ago just by seeing it but it was surely not from the last 24 hours. With her bottom lip bitten, Hana let out a breath. “Stay here,” she commanded before exiting the tent to find the other medic who was a legit nurse before the apocalypse.

Shimizu was sitting beside Tanaka, talking with him and a few others when Hana approached her. Noticing her presence, Shimizu greeted Hana quietly. The smiled on Shimizu’s face slightly fell when she saw the unusual facial expression that Hana held.

Hana whispered something to Shimizu’s ear about the situation at the tent and Shimizu was clearly shocked. But for the sake of what Hana just said not leak to the others around them, Shimizu held a poker face as she excuse herself and went back inside with Hana.

The two speed walked to the tent where Kenma was waiting and went in only to surprise Kenma from their sudden entrance. “Are you really?” Shimizu slowly asked.

Kenma raised his arm and showed the bite once again. Shimizu stumbled closer and held his arm like she would to a piece of bread that just came freshly out of the oven, with care and an admired look.

She looked closer to the scar and her eye twitched, it was certainly far longer than 24 hours which was the average time a person will turn into an infected after getting bitten. The scar was a squished round circle with small lines from the tooth that had left a stamp on Kenma’s upper arm, around it was slightly painted with dark purple and black with dried red blood from the lines.

“How long ago was this?” Shimizu asked calmly as she pulled a chair and sat in front of Kenma.

“Six months,” Kenma replied. Shimizu glanced back at the scar and nodded her head, confirming that it made sense.

“Any side effects?” Kenma rummaged through his mind and shifted at his seat.

“Fevers and slight fatigue.”

“How bad?”

“As bad to unable to walk.” The pace of their conversation was fast as if the whole thing was already scripted and they only had to read from it. Hana’s head was wobbling from Shimizu to Kenma over and over again as one asks and the other answers.

The conversation paused with Shimizu looking away and thinking for a second. “When was the last fever and how bad was it?”

Kenma thought for a moment before remembering the fever he caught last month. “A month ago. It was a mild one.”

Shimizu nodded her head and stood back up, returning the chair back to where she took it from. “Keep this between us for now. We’ll keep an eye on you and check you every now and then.” She talked in a low voice to make sure no one from outside could accidentally hear them.

Hana went outside to get Kenma a new shirt, leaving Shimizu with Kenma alone. Shimizu was a quiet and calm person who talks only the necessary. Adding that to her skills in the medical field and the beauty she held, Tanaka must be the luckiest person alive to be able to wrap his arms around her that no one else could.

Kenma looked down and fiddled with his hands. He was thinking to himself saying that telling Hana and Shimizu about this was the right choice. After long years or wandering around all on his own, opening up to others even the people that he’s known before still made his nervous and unsure.

He wasn’t scared that if the others knew about it, they might throw him out but he was scared of being alone. He didn’t want to travel around an infected Japan alone but he also didn’t want to see these people’s faces. These faces that was saved by giving away Kuroo’s life. He wanted to leave but he didn’t want to be alone.

“So Kenma,” Shimizu started, leaning her shoulder to the wall as she faced Kenma. “What are you going to do after this? Are you leaving again?” It sent shivers down his spine; it was as if Shimizu knew what Kenma was thinking.

“I don’t, I don’t know. I’ll see after a while,” the long haired man mumbled. The flap on the tent opened and Hana appeared with a shirt and a jacket similar with the one that he was wearing. Kenma thanked the brown haired woman and put on the clothes given to him.

Winter was coming, and problems were lining up ready to come at Kenma and the others. Tsukishima and Bokuto were waiting at Washijou’s branch in Shibuya City, Tokyo as they gather as much information as they can. They don’t know if they’ll be escaping on their own or if they’ll be rescued by Kenma.

Daichi was facing a dilemma about the man that his team rescued and was waiting for the one month timer to run out. He didn’t know whether he should listen to the warning Kageyama gave him or if he should listen to his own gut.

Hopefully, everything gets resolved by spring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So let's start this story for real... who was the person that team 3 saved? do you still remember Kageyama's warning to Daichi? What abt Tsukki and Bokuto, how are they doing? What's Kenma going to do now?
> 
> Next chapter will be abt Daichi's team, team 3 and their attempt on saving the man they found.


	5. Living in Grayscale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Who are my friends?” he asked, turning his head back to Daichi and then to Ennoshita before moving to Yui as if they knew who or where his friends were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! Guess who that unknown man is 
> 
> ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Right after Daichi and the rest parted ways with Nishinoya and Akane; they quickly boarded the car again and drove underneath the rain with a bloody passenger in the brink of death at the backseat of the car. Yui was pressing a cloth at the man’s open stomach. Daichi spared a glance on the rearview mirror to see bloodbath there, red blood was everywhere, even the ceiling of the car had blotches of blood an a handprint from when the car jumped over a speed bump and Yui had to hold onto the ceiling.

The stranger was drifting in and out of consciousness and Yui had often needed to speak and ask if the person was awake or not. They’ve never had a situation such as this, if there were injuries, the worse that ever happened was getting stabbed or shot or the most worse of all was getting infected, which doesn’t have a cure and anyone that was infected were doomed to be abandoned or killed in place.

The car came to an abrupt stop and the door to the back seat flew open before they carried the man into the base they settled before back at the kindergarten school. They burst into one of the classrooms and moved everything away before placing the man on of the connected tables.

Yui was quick to move and as a former surgeon, they were lucky to have Yui there and not someone else. The man had his stomach slashed, probably from the tree branch that caught him, one of his arms was broken and his ankle was swollen red.

The medic focused on the stomach wound while she left the broken arm to Daichi. The two worked their best and after a few hours inside the dark classroom, they walked out to leave the man to heal. Ennoshita, who was standing on guard outside immediately asked them how the person was doing.

Yui waved her hand at him, “He should be fine, and it’s all on him now.” They gathered in the lobby of the kindergarten and discussed their plan after this.

“It’ll take a few weeks for his arm to heal if he doesn’t do rash things that is and also a few weeks for the wound on the stomach to close. Thankfully his ankle wasn’t broken so we should be able to start moving at the end of the month,” Yui informed the two men. A month should be sufficient for the man to wake and heal, along with their amount of supplies that they’d had to thin out so they can last.

Daichi nodded his head and stood up from the floor before stretching his back. This whole apocalypse thing was really doing its job making him remember his age once more. He’s certainly getting old. “I’m going to change his clothes,” Daichi told the two and by ‘him’ he meant the unknown man.

Yui went to catch some sleep and Ennoshita was still on guard. Daichi went over to the classroom where the stranger laid unconscious. Yui told him that he should wake up in no time thanks to his build and healthy body. Daichi couldn’t help but wonder help but wonder where the man came from.

He lifted the man up carefully to a sitting position and unfolded the clean shirt sitting on the chair nearby. As he looped the neck of the shirt in his head, something on the back of the man’s shoulder caught his attention. Daichi took a piece of cloth and wiped his shoulder before freezing in place.

All the air in the room had seem to escape allowing the temperature to drop. Or maybe it was all in Daichi’s head but the symbol marked on the person’s shoulder brought back bad memories of the past. It was the same circle mark with an ‘X’ in the middle of it. His eyes drifted back to the person in front of him, he was in a bad shape, his stomach had wide gauze wrapped around it, one of his arms was broken, and the swelling on his ankle was still bad.

“If you meet someone with this sign on their clothes or anywhere, please get as far away from them as possible” Kageyama’s words rang in his head. His mind told him, ’Get away. Get away. He’s dangerous. Get away!’ but at the same time he knew that the person was hurt and he couldn’t possibly do any harm to them. In fact, if he was to do something to them, a single jab to the stomach and he’d most likely be down.

Daichi couldn’t imagine the scene if he found the mark first before deciding whether or not to take the man in or not. Would he leave the man to die right there and then underneath the cold rain to bleed himself to death? If the man begged Daichi to save him, the probability of Daichi taking him in would still be quite high.

But that person was the bad guy. They’re the people that he should be avoiding the most; he’s with those people that gave hell to Daichi. How could he spare the heart to save him? Nevertheless, seeing an injured man still tugged him, even if it’s the one of the bad guys.

With a troubled heart, Daichi finished changing the person’s clothes and didn’t forget to put another layer of blanket to shield him from the cold air. Should he not done that? But he’s a wounded person, how could he keep him in the cold to freeze.

After that, Daichi sat on a chair in the room, observing the man as his chest slowly went up and down taking in and releasing air. A sigh escaped Daichi’s lips, the dilemma he’s facing was troublesome. His eyes slowly closed as he remembered the moment when he was saved by Kenma’s team years back. It was the first time Daichi had ever imagined what a hero or a savior might have looked like.

He chuckled; he never thought that his savior would have a disheveled bed head that covered one of his eyes and points to every possible direction. A boyish grin plastered on his face even though he was standing in the middle of panic and destruction. And a hyena laugh that was not so pleasant for the ears.

“Hi! I’m Kuroo go to the bridge and run remember not to make a lot of sound though!” Kuroo, his name was Kuroo. Dark hair, heavy voice, and narrow grey eyes with cat-like pupils that made him quite intimidating. Daichi also remembered how Kenma’s small figure stood behind Kuroo with glowing golden eyes that no one can escape from.

The rain outside was slowly becoming lighter as the sun began to sink down in the west. The door quietly opened and Ennoshita appeared with a hand over his mouth to cover his yawn. “I’m switching with Michimiya-san; I’m going to get some sleep if that’s fine.”

“Of course, I’ll be outside if you need anything.” Daichi stood up from his seat and walked out of the room to let Ennoshita sleep. The three of them had agreed that one will stay in the room with the stranger man while the other two have at least one person keep guard.

Yui was near the school entrance with a metal bat hanging on her right hand. Noticing Daichi’s arrival, the woman turned and greeted him with a smile. Daichi remembered when Yui first came; she was very cautious and tried to avoid interaction with anyone to as little to none.

It was a shame that their teams only had very little women for Yui to interact with but the presence of Akane there was enough to rope her and make her more comfortable with the other men. Daichi was glad that Yui was able to open up thanks to Akane because if Akane were not there Daichi would have not known what to do.

“How long do you think it’d take before the person wakes up?” Daichi asked as the two of them kept an eye on their surroundings.

Yui pursed her lips and thought for a moment before replying, “It shouldn’t be long. I hope he didn’t suffer any brain damage and fall into a coma for months.”

“Did he even hit his head?” There was no blood coming out from the head to indicate that the person had an injury on the head but anything could’ve happen.

“There was a bruise on his head but it didn’t look so serious. And I’m not a brain surgeon.” They chuckled together. “But he should be awake in no time. Maybe two days or even tomorrow.“

Daichi nodded his head in understanding. He began to walk around the school grounds, observing the abandoned building, the playground outside was covered with tall grasses and eaten by rust. The walls were also grey and boring. Yet amongst those things there are small things that brought a smile to his face.

Like the flower beds behind the school, decorating the green grasses with some purple and whites. The fresh air that he inhaled which brought a cool wash to his lungs. Even the small man-made river at the back that flowed clean clear water. He could imagine the children that used to go there to watch the water take their little paper boats away or watch ladybugs sitting on the beds of flowers.

Daichi dug his hand into his pocket and took out the paper with the symbol drawn on it. His mind went back to the unconscious man inside with the same mark on his shoulder. Should he have saved him or not? By saving his life was Daichi perhaps helping the progress of the enemy's growth?

He was hesitant and unsure of himself. If Kenma were there what would he have done? Would knowing the person’s identify first be a good idea?

By this time, the rain had stopped and the sky was turning from orange to a dark twilight with stars littering the sky. Some were brighter than the other and some were dim as though they were much further from earth. Daichi rustled through the bushes and went back inside.

The night passed in a blink for Daichi who was sleeping when Ennoshita shook him awake. His closed eye lids opened and Ennoshita was standing in front of him, “He’s awake.” At first Daichi had to think for a second. He wanted to ask who was awake but then remembered about the unknown man they found yesterday.

He followed Ennoshita to the room and indeed found the man awake and sitting up on the table, his eyes glancing left and right around the room with uneasiness. “Where is this?” his voice was deep and low. The man tried to stand on his two feet but failed when he nearly dropped to the floor. Daichi had helped him up and told him to stay seated or lay on his back.

“No, no, where is this? Why am I here? Who are you?” the man rushed Daichi as he tried to cover a blanket around the man’s shaking body.

Daichi awkwardly opened his mouth without being able to say anything and overwhelmed by the number of questions dumped on him. “Umm. First, calm down,” Daichi started by placing both hands on his shoulders. The man sat back on the makeshift bed and sighed after taking a deep breath. “This is a kindergarten school in Miyagi. You’re here because you got hurt and we took you here to help you. We’re not here to harm you.”

After a few seconds of digesting the information he just got, the man gulped and turned to Daichi again before asking, “My friends, where are my friends?”

The man he questioned tilted his head to the side; does that mean there are more of Washijou’s men around here? “Who, who are your friends?” Daichi held a calm expression as he tried to confirm his estimation.

The man opened his mouth to answer but then froze. His eyebrows pinched together in a confused look as his shoulders slowly slumps down and turned his head away to think. Yui, who just came, stood at the doorway while watching the scene unfold itself in front of her.

“Who are my friends?” he asked, turning his head back to Daichi and then to Ennoshita before moving to Yui as if they knew who or where his friends were.

“Yeah, who are they?” the man couldn’t answer the question. “Your name then what’s your name,” Daichi softly asked hoping not to make the man panic. But he froze again at the question. His mind searched and searched but only found tiny pieces of puzzle that doesn’t fit anywhere.

 _“Kuro!_ ” a tiny but loud voice filled with emotions shouted from his memory. It sounded troubled and in panic but he couldn’t form a face that shouted it. Was it him shouting or was it someone shouting to him? He was confused.

“I don’t... I don’t know. My head hurts,” the man shrunk down, sinking his head into his hand in despair. Daichi pursed his lips and tapped the man’s shoulder gently before telling him to get some more rest first. He lay down on the makeshift bed and was left alone for some time to think and rest.

Yui had hoped that he didn’t get into a coma but instead he got himself a memory loss. Daichi and Ennoshita followed Yui to the front of the school where he shouldn’t be able to hear them. She folded her arms across her chest and bit her nails in worry. “What’s wrong with him?” Ennoshita asked, pointing his thumb over his shoulder towards the room.

“It’s sort of normal for a person to have temporary amnesia when they got a concussion, they usually last for a few days to a few weeks,” Yui poured her knowledge about what she knew revolving the situation.

“Could it get worse?” Ennoshita asked from beside her.

“It could,” she confirmed. “It could last for months and it even can be permanent.” They stayed quiet; they didn’t know what they should be doing right now. They certainly don’t have time to look for some brain expert or even the power to do it.

“Well, it wouldn’t be much of a problem if he’s coming with us though, right?”

“About that,” Daichi cut in. “I have something I haven’t told you two about.” The other two looked to Daichi and waited for him to continue. “He’s one of Washijou’s.”

Both of them had their jaws crawling on the floor at what Daichi just said. They wanted to deny it but were turned down when Daichi continued to prove their thoughts wrong, “He has the mark, on the back of his shoulder. I saw it when I changed his clothes."

“Are you serious?” Yui said, covering her mouth with her hand in disbelieve. A thought popped into her mind and she slowly lowered her hand again, “But he’s suffering memory loss right now.”

They glanced around at each other before Ennoshita spoke up, “What if he’s faking it?” There’s also that too. That man could be faking his memory loss and was actually waiting for his friends to actually come.

Ennoshita and Yui then turned to Daichi who was scratching his chin, a movement he often does when he was thinking something very hard. “Miyagi?” Daichi sounded.

“Why is he in Miyagi?” he completed his sentence. “Why is he and his friends in Miyagi already when Washijou haven’t gotten Utsunomiya yet?” it sort of made sense. Miyagi was very far from Tokyo and its surroundings. To be suddenly already in Miyagi was odd enough for them.

Their eyes drifted to the closed door in the class hallway where behind it was the suspicious man. Daichi seated his fists on his hips with pinched brows before releasing a sigh that had been building up inside of him. “We’ll give him a moment for now. We still have one month, let’s use that time to observe him before deciding what to do.” Daichi shortly concluded. “Ennoshita, get him something to eat for now,” he commanded. Ennoshita nodded his head in agreement before going to get some food for the man from their supplies.

The room where the man was kept turned silent the moment they left the room. His heart was beating out of his chest in fear. _‘How come I not remember anything?’_ He fidget around as he dug around his memory even if he needed to force it. A line of ache shot through his head as he bent down from the pain. While his head hurts, the pain around his body also seems to come to live.

It felt familiar, but his finger couldn’t pin point where it was from. His eyes looked around the room he was in again; the walls had flowers painted on it that was turning dark and yellow. At one of the corners of the room there was mold growing around the wall and ceiling. There was a single lantern as a source of light sitting on a table nearby beside some food that the guy with slightly down-turned eyes gave him.

The people that had saved him looked nice and did say that they didn’t have any bad intentions towards him, which he was thankful for. His worries began to mitigate when late at night, Daichi entered the room with some food and chatted with him.

They were munching on pieces of fruits as the stranger listened to Daichi talk. During the middle of their conversations, he stopped and pinched his brows before apologizing, “I’m sorry, I never introduced myself. My name is Daichi Sawamura, feel free to call me Daichi or Sawamura. The lady that treated you is Yui and the other guy is Ennoshita, they’re both good people so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

“I... thank you for saving my life. I couldn’t remember what had happened but I appreciate your actions towards a stranger like me that’s only wasting your foods and supplies.” Daichi had slowly told him about the situation of the world and why he was in a kindergarten rather than a hospital when he was hurt that bad.

“What do you think we should call you? Should we make something up for now?” Daichi asked as he placed a slice of apple into his mouth. His face twisted at the sour flavor, it didn’t taste as sweet as the ones that he usually ate from the stores.

The memory of him remembering something from that morning came back and he opened his mouth to say something, “Um, I, Kuro,” he blabbered. Daichi paused and repeated his word, “Kuro? Do you want us to call you Kuro?” he nodded his head.

“I remembered that from this morning. I still don’t know if it’s even my name of not.” The way he talked was soft and scared in a shy way even though his build was nearly the same as Daichi.

“At least it’s better than calling you ‘hey’, ‘you’, ’oi’, or even ‘cliff guy’,” Daichi laughed. Because of the lack of name, during the whole day when they needed to talk to him, they had only been calling him those names. The man had never been more thankful to be picked up by such a kind group of people in an apocalypse.

They talked for a little longer before Ennoshita called Daichi out to take turns. The man was starting to open up to Daichi. After excusing himself, Daichi exited the room and the bright expression he wore slowly dissolved away. ‘Kuro’ the man had said that he remembered that name.

Daichi also remembered that name. It was the same name that he heard Kenma call their former leader with years ago. But it couldn’t have been right, coincidence were bound to happen. Their former leader had died and the injured man that they’re currently taking care of just happened to remember a certain nickname and also had the same grey eyes and cat-like pupils. Sweat began to form on Daichi’s forehead as he drowned in his thoughts. But he also had the mark on his shoulder, no random person can get that mark etched on their skin.

The strings were all jumbled up in Daichi’s head and he couldn’t even find one of the ends of the string.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone's having a fever next chapter...


End file.
